A system of materia medica and pharmacy : including translations of the Edinburgh, London, and Dublin pharmacopoeias.

  • Murray, J. (John), -1820.
Date:
1834
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A system of materia medica and pharmacy : including translations of the Edinburgh, London, and Dublin pharmacopoeias. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    A preparation is in use under the name of the Black Drop, con- sidered by some practitioners to possess peculiar advantages. It is a more concentrated preparation than the common tincture of opium, and requires to be given in not more than half the quantity. The following is the formula given for its preparation : Take half a pound of opium sliced, three pints of good verjuice, one and a half ounce of nutmegs, and half an ounce of saffron : Boil to a proper thickness, then add a quarter of a pound of sugar, and two spoon- fuls of yeast. Set the whole in a warm place near the fire for six or eight weeks, then place it in the open air until it. becomes a syrup, and, lastly, decant, filter, and bottle it up, adding a little sugar to each bottle. This preparation has been recommended chiefly from its not affecting the stomach and head so much as the other prepa- rations of opium, and consists essentially of acetate of morphia. The Dublin College have introduced into their Pharmacopoeia an Acetum Opii, as a preparation of a similar nature. The acetate of morphia is sometimes given in a pure state, and is found to profluce the narcotic effect of opium without being followed in so great a degree by nausea and headach. Battley's Liquor opii sedativus, which also possesses this advantage, appears to contain either a tartrate or acetate of morphia.* Citrate of morphia has been introduced into practice by Dr. Porter of Bristol, and Muriate of morphia by Dr. W. Gregory, and these, especially the latter, appear to be valuable remedies. It has by some been affirmed, that the administration of the pure salts of morphia is not followed in any degree by the unpleasant feelings that succeed the exhibition of opium. This can scarcely be admitted. The derangement of the functions of the stomach, and effect on the nervous system, are the natural consequences of the ac- tion of any powerful narcotic, and experience fully proves that morphia is not an exception. But the narcotine which is. present in opium seems to aggravate these sequela, and the abstraction of it is undoubtedly an advantage. The preparations of morphia may be combined with other medi- cines, as iuecacuan and antimony, and with the same result of pro- ducing a modified action, as is the case with opium. Officinal Preparations.—Elect, opiat. Pil. opiat. Pulv. opiat. Pulv. ipecac, et opii. Tinct. opii. Tinct. opii ammoniata. Tinct. opii camphorata. Tinct. saponis et opii. Troch. glycirrhiz. cum opio. Pil. saponis cum opio. Pulv. cornu usti cum opio. Pulv. cret. comp. cum opio. Conf. opii. Vin. opii. Acet. opii. Extr. opii. Emplast. opii. Extr. opii. The dried capsule of the poppy is sometimes employed for medi- cinal purposes. Its active matter is extracted by decoction with water; this evaporated, affords an extract similar to opium, but weaker, or it is made into a syrup, by boiling with sugar, which is used as an anodyne. This syrup is a weak preparation, and is in * For some account of this preparation, the reader is referred to the notice of Em- pirical remedies at the close of this work.—B.